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She undergoes transplant, goes blind, then runs

PETERBOROUGH–As she builds up speed on the treadmill in the basement of her suburban home, Debbie Sissmore's feet are just a blur.

She lives to run and, in a way, runs to live. She can't imagine one without the other.

Sissmore, 47, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 4. When she was 30, complications from the disease left her totally blind.

She talks about how lucky she is.

That's right after she curses the fact that a hip injury training for the 2008 Toronto Waterfront Marathon has kept her from any serious roadwork for the past year.

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"Overtraining," she says. "Typical of me. I love to push my body, to see how far I can push it."

But blind? Lucky?

"I'm very blessed," she says. "I have an awesome heart and kidneys. No neuropathy of the feet. I could have needed amputations, I could be on dialysis or waiting for a kidney transplant."

On Christmas Day, 2003, Sissmore became the 60th Canadian to take part in the Edmonton Protocol. The groundbreaking experimental procedure involves transplanting insulin-producing islet cells from the pancreas of an organ-donor.

When a transplant match was found, she had to be at the University of Alberta Hospital within 24 hours. For 15 months, she carried a pager everywhere.

"I was in church with my family, a minute before the Christmas Eve service was about to start. The choir was at the back, there was beautiful music, snow falling outside, bells tolling. The place was packed. And there's me and my pager going off – what a drama queen!"

After six weeks of tests, Sissmore came home "on half the amount of insulin. My blood-sugar was perfectly controlled for the first time ever."

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Three days later, she was called back for a second transplant, which is not unusual. She hasn't needed another since and only requires a tiny daily amount of insulin.

"When I trained for the Toronto marathon, I was off insulin altogether, my metabolism was so revved up," she says.

Sissmore was always a passionate athlete. "I have a degree in physical education, a bachelor of arts in child studies and a bachelor of education. I had this amazing, if short-lived, career teaching primary grades," she says. "I taught for four years and then I developed eye issues. And I met and fell in love with my husband, Malcolm.

"And then I lost my sight. A year after we were married, everything stopped. I lost my career, my independence, everything I knew that was familiar."

It wasn't until Sissmore was in her late teens, that blood-sugar monitoring meters became available for home use.

"Without that, you really don't know where your levels are. I think mine were often very high. Chronic high blood sugar can lead to devastating complications, including blindness."

As she rebuilt her life, learning Braille and "daily living skills," she and her husband bought home gym equipment "and I started to get fit again. We even went riding on a tandem bicycle."

His work in the automotive industry took them to the United States. They were living in Huntington Beach, Calif., when a friend took her out running.

"I was terrified. I had no cane. I didn't know where my foot would land. I was trusting someone else. But then my senses kicked in. I could hear dogs barking, rollerbladers, other runners. There was this freedom ... exhilaration."

When Sissmore was living back in Peterborough, a friend urged her to enter a 5-km race in Toronto.

"When someone challenges me, I never back down. I might not want to do it inside, but I can't say no."

She ran holding a small towel, with her guide holding the other end. All around her, people were stretching, warming up and chatting.

"The gun goes off and the talking stopped and there was the sound of 2,000 people's footsteps hitting the pavement. I started to relax and enjoy it. That was the beginning of Deb going running."

A few weeks before her first islet-cell transplant, Sissmore was entered in the 2003 New York City Marathon. She injured herself training, but was persuaded to at least start the race and walk the first kilometre.

"We finished that marathon. And it taught me so much; to enjoy the journey, to enjoy what I have."

Readers can share stories and photos about people they think are diabetes champions at www.worlddiabetes.ca

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